


Tale As Old As Time

by Iron_Eirlyssa (Eirlyssa)



Series: Eirlyssa's 2019 Bingo Fills [15]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Magic, Bucky Barnes Bingo 2019, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Fairy Tale Retellings, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, M/M, Misunderstandings, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Bucky Barnes, Safe Haven, Tony Stark Bingo 2019, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, WinterIron Bingo 2019
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 22:37:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eirlyssa/pseuds/Iron_Eirlyssa
Summary: Once upon a time... A young prince, an elaborate spell, and a soldier who just wanted to help his friend and ended up in a fairytale he never could've imagined.





	Tale As Old As Time

**Author's Note:**

> Fairly predictably, this fairytale retelling used to have the working title 'Bucky and the Beast'.
> 
> It fills the following squares:  
K1 - Magic for the Tony Stark Bingo  
N1 - Fairytale for the WinterIron Bingo  
U1 - AU: Fairytale for the Bucky Barnes Bingo.
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy it!

☙ 📖 ❧

_Once upon a time, in the faraway land of Evorlyn, there lived a young prince named Anthony. And while one might think that being royalty meant he would want for nothing, the young prince knew better than most that riches were not the key to happiness._

_When an enchanter came to the castle one stormy night, expecting a spoiled and selfish young man, instead what he found was a heart already half broken by coldness and betrayal. But when he asked for shelter, he was not rebuffed as expected - instead, Anthony refused his offer of a jewel as payment, welcoming him inside and calling for a chamber to be readied and food to be prepared._

_During his night in the castle, the enchanter made certain to pay attention to both the prince and those surrounding him. It soon became clear that, while the prince was hesitant to let anyone close and had obviously been hurt before, there was a small group of people that loved him dearly._

_Initially, the enchanter had intended to move on - the prince had proven himself to be a good person, after all, generous despite his flaws and previous experiences. But he found himself staying, curiosity growing stronger by the day as he watched the interactions between the prince and those who should be his servants._

_Until, finally, he decided he had seen and heard more than enough._

☙ 📖 ❧

“You sure you don’t want me coming along, Stevie?” Bucky asked his best friend, who was packing up his horse and cart.

“Nah, you stay here,” Steve replied, sounding certain as he checked the ropes holding his paintings one last time. “It’s not that far, and I know you hate travelling.”

To be fair, he hated leaving the house in general. Ever since losing his arm in the war that Obadiah had waged when he was still regent, Bucky preferred to stay inside. Things were calm, and peaceful, and people didn’t look at him or talk about him or startle him. Instead he took care of Steve, and as much of the housework as he could with one arm, and he read books to pretend he was elsewhere, exploring different places and experiencing magical adventures that always ended well.

He would feel bad, taking advantage of his friend, but when regent Fury had come into power, he’d instated a policy that allowed those that had been harmed by Obadiah’s war against Deutovia to receive a stipend that was enough to keep them afloat, though far from rich.

“If you’re sure.” Still, he was a little hesitant. It was autumn, and the weather could turn vicious out of nowhere. Steve wasn’t in the best of health already, and Bucky honestly worried about him.

Of course, this was Steve, and Bucky still hadn’t met anyone who could match his friend’s stubborn streak except Bucky himself, occasionally. “Very sure. I’ve got this, Buck,” he assured.

Though he was still a little doubtful, there wasn’t much he could do except wave at his friend as he got onto the cart and headed off. Then there was a bend in the road, and Steve was out of sight.

Flinching a little, Bucky hunched in on himself and headed back inside the house the two of them shared. He only relaxed once he’d settled himself in his familiar nook, his back and sides covered by the wall, and grabbed the book he’d been reading and opened it up on his lap. It didn’t take him long to forget the world around him after that, absorbed in a fantastic world where a brave knight was headed off to face a fearsome dragon.

By the time he finished the book, it was dark outside. Worse, Bucky could hear the rain pounding down on the roof. He hoped Steve had made it to his destination before the rain had started - while the paintings were protected, and while Steve had his oilskin with him, the cold wouldn’t be good for his lungs if he ended up getting stuck in weather like this.

Trying to shrug off his worry, Bucky heated up the leftover soup from the day before, dipping a piece of bread in it for some added texture.

His night ended up being restless, and he woke up multiple times wondering if he’d heard something. Every time it ended up being nothing but the rain, or the thunder, but it left him utterly exhausted when morning came and a watery sun started warming up the town.

Until the clatter of hooves and a panicked neighing that he _knew_.

Rushing outside, he was expecting Sam, Steve’s friend, to be rushing to tell him that the small blond had indeed been caught in last night’s rainstorm and was now terribly ill and in need of all of the emergency medicine they had in their cottage. What he found was even worse.

Howlie, the horse that the two of them shared, looked terribly panicked. The cart was still attached, including all of the paintings Bucky knew Steve had worked on for months and would never let out of his sight unless he had no other choice. And Steve himself was nowhere to be found.

Bucky couldn’t help but curse softly. One-handed, he detached the cart from Howlie’s harness. It was tempting to just let it be, but he knew Steve would murder him if he did, so instead he quickly dragged it into the shed where they usually left it, though he absolutely refused to take the time to get the paintings back into the house. Once he got Steve back, he’d deal with that.

Instead he rushed in, grabbing a bag and throwing in his friend’s medicine. Whatever had happened for Howlie to return without Steve, it was far too likely that he was out somewhere and severely ill.

Then, only barely remembering to lock the door behind him, he got onto Howlie’s back. “Let’s go find Steve,” he said, hoping they would be able to. Beyond getting to the woods, he had no idea where Steve had ended up losing his way, so he hoped the horse would be able to guide him to his friend.

Due to all of the rain, the tracks from the day before had been washed away completely. In the mud, he could still vaguely see how Howlie had returned, but even that was starting to fade away.

So instead, he let the horse lead the way, calling out for Steve every once in a while. He didn’t stop even when his stomach started growling, too worried to stop for food.

It was only when darkness started falling that he made any progress - a small path, nearly invisible, that Howlie started on himself. Out of any other ideas and hoping that the horse knew where it was going, Bucky trusted him to lead the way, calling for Steve with a voice that had long gone hoarse.

And then they broke through the treeline to find a huge castle Bucky had never known was in these woods in the first place.

“What the…?” It would have been a good idea for Steve to hide out here, though, which had him leading Howlie closer. Relief filled him when he noticed the light shining from one of the windows, Steve’s oilskin hanging from the windowsill as a sort of flag. Though there really shouldn’t be a need for a flag, would there, unless Steve needed someone to be able to find him.

Quickly tying Howlie down under some cover, Bucky rushed into the castle, hoping to be able to make his way to the room where Steve was staying.

Suits of armor lined the entrances to different hallways he walked through, but Bucky didn't see a single person in the entire castle as he headed to where he'd seen the light in the window. He stuck to the shadows as much as possible, just in case anyone showed up, but the entire castle seemed abandoned in a way. Not dirty, the way he would've expected it to be, but just... empty.

It unsettled him deeply.

Finally, he thought he was on the right floor and in the right hallway. "Steve?" he hissed, looking around cautiously. "Steve, are you here?"

"Bucky?" a faint voice came from one of the doorways, and he rushed to it.

Trying the knob, he pushed and pulled, but the door wouldn't open. "Steve, I'm here. I'll get you out of here." He looked around the hallway for something he could use to force the door open, but there were only candlesticks and the suits of armor standing at both ends.

"You have to leave," Steve told him, and he sounded awful - worse than Bucky had ever heard him. "Make sure _he_ doesn't see you and leave, and bring reinforcements."

"What is going on, Steve?" Something was very wrong here, and even more so if Steve was insisting on Bucky _leaving_ him. Usually, he'd be willing to fight just about anything, and he hadn't thought his friend had ever _heard_ of retreating until now. "Who's keeping you here?"

"I don't know, but... it's not natural, Buck." A chill went up his back when his friend said that, and he became all the more certain that he simply couldn't leave Steve here. "He's... _it_ isn't human."

Even with only one arm, Bucky still had some weight to throw around, and he slammed himself into the door. "I'm not leaving you here, Steve. I'm _not_."

"Bucky please, you have to. Don't let him trap you too," Steve insisted.

There was a reason the two of them were friends, though, and both of their mothers had often joked it was because they were the only ones in the entirety of Evorlyn who could match one another for stubbornness. And whatever was going on here, Bucky was going to get his best friend _out_.

Later, Bucky wouldn't even be sure what had alerted him to the presence. But from one moment to the next, he was absolutely certain that he wasn't alone anymore.

He turned to the end of the hallway slowly, almost afraid of what he'd see there.

None of the books he'd read, none of the tales he'd been told, none of the stories he'd imagined, were enough to prepare him for whatever it was. It was up on two legs, some huge mixture of human and animal that made Bucky flinch back from it, instinctively repulsed. Even its eyes were dark, instantly filling him with dread. In its chest, about eye level with Bucky, there was a glowing blue light that only made it seem more eerie. And while Bucky had never been easily scared, he couldn't help but be frightened of this... _thing_.

Still, no reason to let it show. "Let my friend out," he demanded, hand moving for the dagger that he'd carried with him all his life.

The creature huffed. "He stays or he dies," it informed Bucky, sounding far too casual when threatening to kill someone. Its voice was male, and unlike the rest of the creature, it could actually have been considered pleasant in any other situation.

Widening his stance, Bucky pulled out his knife. "I'm not letting you kill him," he growled out.

"Kill him? I was - " Before it could finish whatever it was about to say, Bucky charged. However hopelessly outmatched he likely was against something as large and obviously muscular as the creature, there was no way he wouldn't at least _try_. Not when Steve's life depended on it.

To his surprise, the creature actually flinched back, away from him, when he slashed at it with the knife. He’d had too much training to be caught off-guard by an enemy avoiding his first attack, though, and followed through with the movement for another slash. 

Before Bucky could complete his attack, the two immobile armors that had been standing at the end of the hallway moved in front of the creature and catching his attack. Bucky struggled, snarling, but his arm was gripped tightly by one of the armors. One soft squeeze to a pressure point and he was forced to drop his knife, which the second armor caught.

As it moved, Bucky was hit with the realization that they were just that - suits of armor. Through the small gaps, the ones he'd been trained to look for, he could see that there wasn't anyone inside.

Then the first armor pulled at him, dragging him along to the door that he'd been trying to force his way through. Without any effort or key, it turned the knob and opened the door.

He'd been expecting a room as bare as the walls, to be honest. A glorified prison cell.

Instead, what he found was a lavish room, richly decorated with a soothing dark blue contrasted by a light wood. There was a huge bed, large enough that they could've brought Howlie as well and still have had room to lay down without touching. There was also a small sitting area with several chairs and a comfortable-looking couch. Some food was on the table, although it looked like it had hardly been touched.

Most importantly, there was Steve, who somehow managed to look even worse than he sounded. Bucky was immediately distracted, not even paying attention to the armor anymore as it let him go and closed the door behind it as it left.

"What did they _do_ to you?" he couldn't help but ask as he took in the way Steve's skin was paler than parchment, a slight sheen of sweat covering it. Now that there wasn't a door between the two of them, he could also hear the way his friend's breath rattled in his chest, every inhale and exhale more of a wheeze than anything else. He looked closer to death than Bucky had ever seen him. "Get in the bed _right now_."

It was a testament to how bad he actually felt that Steve obliged, rather than stubbornly insisting nothing was wrong. As he slowly maneuvered himself underneath the covers, Bucky went to inspect the food that was on the side table. He was rather surprised that there was a variety of foods, especially as he noticed that it was all things that would be easy to digest. Rather than beer or wine, there was also a carafe of clear-looking water. Trying to ignore his growing confusion, he put together a plate of things he knew Steve liked, grabbing a few bites for himself as well.

Unfortunately, he realized he had left the bag with Steve’s medicine with Howlie, too worried to take it off the saddle.

"This isn't..." Steve eventually ended up speaking, voice raspy, "I mean, I don't _like_ any of this, but the being sick thing is because I got stuck in a storm. Yesterday. I got lost in the forest, which is stupid, because I _never_ got lost before, but... There was this storm, and I was cold and wet and then Howlie got startled and threw me off. And then I found this place, and I was just going to ask if I could warm up, maybe get some dry clothes, and I was going to leave again. Except then that creature showed up, and I was feverish enough that I got confused, and then I was in this room and it wouldn't let me leave."

Suddenly, looking at Steve and the way he looked to be on the brink of death, Bucky couldn't help but wonder if he hadn't misunderstood whatever the creature had been saying. If it hadn't decided, not entirely mistakenly, that Steve would die if he went out into the cold again.

Had he gotten it all wrong?

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it so far! Feel free to come check out my [Tumblr](https://eirlyssa.tumblr.com/) as well if you'd like.


End file.
